Thank you, John,
That makes a lot of sense, and it is very likely the explanation -
especially since my ISP's mail servers are down for several hours every few
weeks.
David Grossman


> The speed of your dial up connection is the speed of your connection to
your
> ISP; it is the speed of the connection over the phone lines from your
modem
> to their modem.  As far as the bandwidth or amount of data that can be
> carried this will be the "smallest pipe" when you are downloading
> information off of the internet.
>
> However, as you visit various sites with your browser, you may find some
> times that you are waiting for the page to appear or for the site to
respond
> to your browser in other ways.  This has less to do with the speed of your
> connection and more to do with the amount of traffic that site is trying
to
> handle.  It may simply not be able to dish out the information fast enough
> to all the people accessing the site at the same time.  You'll have to
wait
> your turn.  This will be a much more noticeable effect than the difference
> between 34 kbs and 46 kbs download speeds for your modem's connection.
>
> I suppose the congestion could also be taking place at the level of your
> ISP, if they don't have the bandwidth to handle all the customers that are
> connected to their modems at the busiest times.  It sounds like their mail
> servers, for example, can get a bit sluggish at peak times.
>
> John

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